UK Geographics

Uk Geodemographic Classifications Review

22nd April 2015

Which one should you use?

Geodemographic Segmentation —— Definition

“Geodemographic segmentation refers to a range of methods used for classifying and characterizing neighbourhoods or localities based on the principal that residents living near each other are likely to have similar demographic, socio-economic and lifestyle characteristics. It is used for a wide range of purposes including direct marketing, retail location, service area analysis, housing market analysis, and public service targeting.”

There are number of commercial and open source Geodemographic classifications. We DO NOT endorse any of them and this article is a simple summary of the available Geodemographic classifications in the UK. If you would like to talk to us about geodemographics, or other market discriminators or any other data please feel free to email at[email protected].

Creating a Geodemographic Classification

Use clustering method to assess number of potential clusters Geodemographic classification should have.

Decide on the geographical area you are going to use in clustering

Decide on the set of key variables for the geographical areas you are planning to cluster

Calculate and compare characteristics of the clusters, write pen-portraits for each cluster and assign names to each cluster.

Evaluating Geodemographic Classifications

All geodemographic classifications are based on the number of subjective decisions related to its creation (selection of variables or number of clusters). It is difficult to find an objective method of assessing how good one Geodemographic classification is compared to another. Ideally we would like to have a sample of each classification in order to assess which one will best serve user’s objectives.